This trip was part of a monthly survey of the Colorado River corridor between Austin and Bastrop. It takes place the first Saturday of the month and is led by Claude Morris (who also keeps the detailed lists as seen below). If you’re in the Austin area and want to join in, let me know. Birding on the water provides a great perspective and beautiful scenery. Hope to see you on the water!

Perhaps the best sightings of the day are ones we cannot include in the survey results. There were numerous Crested Caracara in the pastures around Webberville and we found a Mississippi Kite at the Utley bridge. Both sightings were outside the survey area.

Inside today’s survey area our best of the day include Green Kingfisher and American Coot. We had a species list of 36 species.

We have to thank Joan Bishop, Pam Hohman, Kirsti Harms, Julia Balinsky, Andy Balinsky, and Jason Stuck for their help on this hot July 4th.

On another note, I know y’all expect to see some photographs with these results. Well if someone can find my camera I would be glad to try to get the pictures. The camera was dropped in the water. The last time this happened there were numerous suggestions on the care and handling of such apparatus. Those suggestions were ignored. Will I change my habits with my next camera…

This trip was part of a monthly survey of the Colorado River corridor between Austin and Bastrop. It takes place the first Saturday of the month and is led by Claude Morris (who also keeps the detailed lists as seen below). If you’re in the Austin area and want to join in, let me know. Birding on the water provides a great perspective and beautiful scenery. Hope to see you on the water!

Stretching from Alaska’s interior across Canada to the Alantic Ocean, the Boreal Forest of North America plays a critical role in the survival of birds and other wildlife around the world. Nearly 50% of the 700 species of birds that regularly occur in the US and Canada rely on the Boreal for their survival. The forest is also home to the continent’s largest population of wolves, lynx, black and grizzly bears, and even the threatened woodland caribou.

Palm WarblerPhoto by Jeff Nadler

Unfortunately, this habitat is in danger, dwindling away due to destruction and development. Millions of acres of the Boreal are clearcut each year.

On May 12, this petition will be sent to the Prime Minister of Canada and many provincial leaders, asking that vital bird habitat be kept intact despite the fact that over 30% of the Boreal Forest has already been designated for development. Many migratory birds that travel through the US and other countries breed in the Boreal Forest to the north.

Only 5% of the Boreal Forest in Scandinavia remains. Don’t let this happen in Canada. The birds and wildlife that live there need your help.

This trip was part of a monthly survey of the Colorado River corridor between Austin and Bastrop. It takes place the first Saturday of the month and is led by Claude Morris (who also keeps the detailed lists as seen below). If you’re in the Austin area and want to join in, let me know. Birding on the water provides a great perspective and beautiful scenery. Hope to see you on the water!

Sometime there are days in the field that defy what has come to be expected as normal. How can I explain five Green Kingfishers yet no Belted Kingfishers? How can I explain five Anhinga yet no Osprey? Such was our day today.

In spite of missing those two usual species we did manage to list 68. Some of the highlights include the Anhinga, Green Kingfisher, Baltimore Oriole, Tri-colored Heron, Bald Eagle, Pileated Woodpecker, and our target bird of the day Prothonotary Warbler.

In our list is an interesting mix of our winter species, summer species and migrants.

We also had an impressive list of birders that braved the 15 windy miles. Our birders today include Sally Breed, Joan Bishop, Julia Balinsky, Andy Balinsky, Chris Masey, Nevin Durish, Jason Stuck and John Barr. Thanks for the help collecting all these birds.

This trip was part of a monthly survey of the Colorado River corridor between Austin and Bastrop. It takes place the first Saturday of the month and is led by Claude Morris (who also keeps the detailed lists as seen below). If you’re in the Austin area and want to join in, let me know. Birding on the water provides a great perspective and beautiful scenery. Hope to see you on the water!

Two species stand out as being good finds today. A Pileated Woodpecker, just because it is not an everyday bird, and two Great Crested Flycatchers, because they represent a return of our summer birds, were probably our two best species of the day. We also got an unusually high count of Crested Caracara at 10. I also think we got three Nashville Warblers singing. It was an incomplete song but I listed them as Nashville.

I also need to mention that we saw no Osprey, White-eyed Vireos are plentiful and we got several Little Blue Herons.

Our species total was a bit low at 42. Again I think the blustery wind early in the morning kept some of the smaller birds hidden in the woods.

This month I want to again thank Ananda Debnath for being my co-pilot. Once the clouds and chill burned off it turned into a beautiful day. Thanks Ananda.

This trip was part of a monthly survey of the Colorado River corridor between Austin and Bastrop. It takes place the first Saturday of the month and is led by Claude Morris (who also keeps the detailed lists as seen below). If you're in the Austin area and want to join in, let me know. Birding on the water provides a great perspective and beautiful scenery. Hope to see you on the water!

Alright, what happened to all the ducks? Last months survey we listed 14 species of ducks and this month only 2 species. We couldn't even find an old Coot. Could it be that all this warm weather has them thinking about leaving? All this warm weather has the Carolina Chickadees singing. Those guys were chattering and singing all day and all down the river.

Perhaps our best birds of the day were three Bald Eagles (2 Adults and one juvenile) and Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Always making a highlight list is Barred Owl and Inca Doves.

On a side note we found a water snake warming itself, the nicotine plants are blooming and we had about 12 feral pigs swim across the river ahead of us.

The very windy conditions make paddling a bit difficult today.

We listed 44 species while trying to keep out kayaks upright and grab some photos of the emerging spring.

This trip was part of a monthly survey of the Colorado River corridor between Austin and Bastrop. It takes place the first Saturday of the month and is led by Claude Morris (who also keeps the detailed lists as seen below). If you're in the Austin area and want to join in, let me know. Birding on the water provides a great perspective and beautiful scenery. Hope to see you on the water!

Today I would like to give mention to six species we have never had on a survey before. Those six species are Rusty Blackbird, Cinnamon Teal, Hooded Merganser, Herring Gull, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Harris Sparrow. All of these species are good finds for our area.

Always deserving of a highlight list includes Anhinga, Green Kingfisher and Neotropic Cormorant. These three species and the previous six rounds out our total of 81 species tallied today.

This section of river lived up to its billing as being very ducky. We counted over 400 individuals divided among 14 species.

An impressive list of birds compiled by an impressive list of birders. Thanks for your help today.

If anyone has anything resembling a rain dance now would be a good time to get it out.

The cold front moving through Austin was at the tail end, but I knew it was going to be a bit chilly in the morning, so I loaded up my kayak Friday night. And cold it was! On the way to the put-in spot, the car said it was 29 degrees. But by the time the three of unloaded our kayaks at the Utley bridge, where the 969 and Colorado River meet, it was clear that it was going to be a beautiful sunny day. As we put our boats in the water around 9am, it was already around 45, with only a slight breeze. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. By the time we wrapped things up around 3pm, it was 65. What a wonderful day!

Through our nine-mile trek, we racked up 44 specied of birds, including two juvenile and two adult Bald Eagles as well as two Pileated Woodpeckers. I was able to add Crested Caracara to my life list.

This trip was part of a monthly survey of the Colorado River corridor between Austin and Bastrop. It takes place the first Saturday of the month and is led by Claude Morris (who also keeps the detailed lists as seen below). If you’re in the Austin area and want to join in, let me know. Birding on the water provides a great perspective and beautiful scenery. Hope to see you on the water!

Well it’s been a while since I’ve written anything to the Beakspeak blog. It’s not due to a lack of things to write about; Austin has shown to provide plenty of topics and material. After I moved and started unpacking, it hit me how overwhelming things had become. I was in a new town, a world away from the people I’d gotten to know as friends in the 18 years I’d spent in Los Angeles. The sporadic calls of “Let’s hit up Killer Shrimp for lunch” or “Poker at Petey’s on Saturday” were no more. My birding friends weren’t calling for a Saturday trip to Bolsa Chica or Malibu Lagoon.

My new coworkers and the familiar faces of those who’d already transferred from the Santa Monica office were key in helping me get settled in. I’d spent so much time in LA, that I knew most of the town like the back of my hand. And though Austin’s a fraction of the size of LA, it was a complete unknown. Exciting, yet I didn’t quite know where to start. I had a direction…well several directions actually, which was kind of a problem. A good problem. Rather than searching for all that is Austin, I decided to let Austin find me.

The past year has been quite inspirational and energizing. Some of that energy has gone into Beakspeak. And after more development hours than I care to count, a vision that’s been developing for quite some time is finally able to emerge. The egg tooth has broken through the shell.

Without boring you too much with the details, here are some of the main changes:

1) Visual design. When I first designed Beakspeak in 2004, I didn’t have much of a plan past a basic blog. Then I got into photography. I created a Beakspeak photo gallery on Flickr and started including photos in posts. Next, I got into Birdcams and Podcasts. Those sections were easy additions…I didn’t change any of the layout; for each new section I just changed the color scheme. This rebirth brings photos into the main layout. The best color schemes are better found in nature than in a book, and the new theme uses colors found in the African Grey parrot. I’ve named it “Tango” in honor of a wonderful bird I left in the care of a sanctuary when I moved.

2) Podcasts. The list of podcasts has grown significantly. Listing everything on one page made the page very long and busy. The new page lists the most recent six podcasts for each channel, with a button that takes you to all podcasts for that channel. And you can now listen to the audio podcasts using the inline player. There’s no longer any need to download the file and open it with an external player. Video podcasts will still require downloading.

3) Birdcams. The list of birdcams has grown significantly in the past few years thanks to all the generous people who took the time to email me links to new and updated video feeds. It’s been great to see all the support! If you’ve been to the page during nesting season, you’ve seen how many nests there are with eggs and chicks! I added three columns of icons to help make things a little more friendlier and easier to use. The second and third columns note the location and local time of the nest. The first column is new and shows the most recent status of the video, whether it’s an empty nest, shows activity or nest building, or has a nest with eggs or chicks. If you see a video feed that needs a status change, please feel free to drop me an email.

If you were subscribed to the RSS feed, you’ll need to update your information using the link at the bottom of the page.

That’s it for now. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It’s been a lot of work in the making, and there’s still a lot more to do. There is also a lot more to write about, so stay tuned!

Bruce Beehler, the lead scientist for Conservation International, takes Bob Simon and the 60 Minutes crew on a rare visit to a pristine mountain rainforest in Indonesia's Foja Mountains. They come back a great story and some wonderful video, including mating displays from the Black Sickle Bill Bird of Paradise and Golden-fronted Bower Bird, and a Pygmy Possum looking for its fifteen minutes of fame.